Sporting Kansas City has seen their share of ups and downs after the first month of the MLS season. In all sports, and especially in MLS, it’s quite difficult to judge the success of a team after the first few games of the season. Major League Soccer is a long season and regardless of how one’s favorite team is doing in March, they may or may not be playing the same way in October. It’s one reason why you haven’t seen me giving my analysis of the first five Sporting Kansas City games. The other, and more realistic reason was that I haven’t had a chance to study the first five Sporting Kansas City games until now (thank you MLS Live). The first month of the season at least gives people a clearer picture as to what to expect.
The first taste of the Sporting season took place in Philadelphia as Sporting Kansas City took on the Philadelphia Union. After a sluggish start with Philadelphia dominating Sporting for the first 40 minutes, Sporting came back with a Graham Zusi goal near the end of the first half. The 2nd half was all Sporting as Oriol Rosell and new DP Claudio Bieler scored goals of their own. Bieler scoring in his debut really helped give the Sporting fans a good first impression with his clinical finish near the end of the game. Fortunately, I had a chance to go to the game and was with about 100 other Sporting fans in The Cauldron. Being able to see The Cauldron in action at Sporting Park first hand is an experience. Being within The Cauldron, even at an away game, is something else. Everybody had a great time and had fun throughout the day. Most all were from KC, some of us were from other parts of the country, but we all were together and got to see the away team grab a well-deserved three points.
The confidence Sporting Kansas City had in the Philadelphia game was diminished when they went into Canada to face Toronto FC. A rare defensive lapse between Matt Besler and Aurelien Collin resulted in the first Toronto goal and a debatable penalty put Sporting in an early hole that they couldn’t get out of. As far as the penalty went, even though there was some theatrics involved and it could’ve been argued as a dive, I can see the referee making the call and I’d probably do the same if I were in his spot. Lots of legs stabbing at the ball and none made contact with the ball equals the opportunity for the ref to make the call. A late game goal by Bieler was nice and the team as a whole played well but their two mistakes early on resulted in a loss.
Both games against the Chicago Fire and New England Revolution had very similar results. It was very much an homage to last year’s Sporting Kansas City team where the back four was a brick wall, Jimmy Nielsen stopped everything in sight and the team dominated in most every aspect of the game except for the most important stat of them all, the scoreboard. The lack of finishing was apparent and while most teams would be happy with having two unbeaten games in a row, there was just something empty as Sporting saw four points they should’ve had go bye-bye.
For the first time in a long time (arguably ever), the Montreal Impact came to Kansas City and Sporting weren’t the solid favorite at Sporting Park. Montreal blasted out of the gate with an incredible run of four wins out of four and came into KC looking to extend that streak. What transpired was the power of Sporting Park bringing Montreal down to earth and Sporting KC playing to their potential. Instead of controlling all the stats, they played the game on the field and won by eviscerating the Montreal back four. Benny Feilhaber seemed to finally get the hang of playing with the other Sporting players and supplied great passes to Bieler and Zusi for them to bring the game home. Sporting didn’t dominate in passing or possession but they did dominate in shots and the score and it resulted in three points. Sporting also seemed to get into Montreal’s heads for a bit; at least it was the case for manager Marco Schallibaum as he threw a water bottle toward the 4th official after Zusi’s goal.
If I were to give a grade to how Sporting Kansas City has performed in the past month, I would give them a solid B. Even at their worst, they really played well enough to beat any team in the league. All Sporting needs to do is limit mistakes and take advantage of scoring chances. As far as individual players are concerned, Nielsen, Zusi and Bieler have been hitting on all cylinders. Nielsen hasn’t conceded a goal in 339 consecutive minutes, Zusi has had a nice blend of two goals and two assists and Bieler has been on since he stepped foot in MLS having three goals in five games and is tied for 3rd in MLS. As far as what the future holds, I look forward to seeing the further development of Oriol Rosell as he adjusts to being an every game starter, Feilhaber working his way into the squad to be the serviceable #10 the team needs and the emergence of Soony Saad as he seems to have been getting consistent minutes recently. With the added playoff games coming up in the summer, this is a perfect opportunity for Saad to show what he can do now in order to prove to Peter Vermes he deserves more playing time in the future.
With all the play and moves going on, I still look at this time of the season as a version of preseason except that the games obviously count. This team will grow and will have plenty of opportunities to learn and communicate better together. The Sporting Kansas City team you see now will not be the same Sporting Kansas City team you will see in October. While it’s still important to win and get points for obvious reasons, worry more about the play of the team and their improvement in the coming months rather than the final score. As much as I want to see this team win now, I’d much rather see them have their struggles now than in the fall when they pass out the trophies.
(image courtesy of Nick Smith)
